About Bring (Food Forest) Andy to Auckland

We've just gone over target. If you want to continue to support this, the extra funds will be set aside to buy trees for the Food Forest.

Thank you!

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~~ This is a short-sharp campaign - if you want to express your support it, please act now ~~That said, my goal is lots of people giving a little - a coffee and croissant level of support.

For the last four years Andy Cambeis has been working to create Food Forest systems and last year as part of his Degree through the Centre for Sustainable Practice (Otago Polytechnic) he not only established a public food forest in Hawea Flat, he also created an open-source How-To manual to help others do the same.

In response to this extraordinary document and all the associated resources, a few people have got together to create a Waiheke Food Forest. We want Andy to make a first visit to give some valuable input, and we want him to see Waiheke as it looks at the tail-end of a drought.

The core team is James Samuel (best known for helping establish Transition Towns in NZ and Social Media), Steve Roigard (Landscape Gardener with a Permaculture Design certificate) and Luis Bernalt (Architect, Project Coordinator and Steiner Teacher).

In essence we are in a healthy stage of discussion with our local board and their response is enthusiastic. We're looking at a section of the Te Toki Reserve, and keeping fingers crossed it's an 'allowable' activity there.

The website and the Facebook page are where I'm posting furiously to keep up with the flow of new information, so do check in there from time to time.

Waiheke Food Forest - The first four Months

I wanted to pass on this note to all of you who supported this project. It's a summary of the first four months, which I think speaks well to the timeliness of this and other local food projects like it.

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A solid project team has been established of James Samuel, Luis Bernalt, Steve Roigard and Caroline Moore who has come on recently. Christy Ralphs continues to be very supportive and makes herself available when her skills and knowledge can be put to good use.

Meetings and conversations have been had with all the relevant and recommended community groups on Waiheke, and without exception the idea has been met with positivity and support in principle.

Site visits have been made to eight different possible sites and a short-list made.

A Charitable Trust with IRD’s donee status (the Me Aroha Waiheke Foundation) has been gifted to the project and the Trustees are about to change to complete the handover. The first three Trustees are Katherine Russell, Phillip Lockyer and Simon Harvey.

A Facebook presence has been established and has been consistently communicating the progress of the project. And a website has been created with a few early posts about the project and some interesting trees. www.foodforest.co.nz - I see this site as being a place where a number of New Zealand Food Forest projects could post and record their experience and learnings.

Andy’s visit was an opportunity to visit and evaluate our short-list sites, host a small group of financial contrinutors for a visit to two fledging private food forest gardens and a meal, and present the project to the public at the Waiheke Cinema.

While the site is not yet confirmed, a first draft planting plan has been made, financial estimations (budget) begun and a timeline and planting target of end of August has been set.

The focus now is on completing our due diligence on the preferred site.

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Please feel free to get in touch if you have questions, suggestions, inspiration or ideas to share.